What Mum Used to Say
by RefinedOrderlySincereElegant
Summary: ['Well, we’re in luck,' he said. 'It’s a long walk to Harry.' 'What do you mean' Hermione said. 'How is that lucky' 'Walking makes everything better,' Ron said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.] RonHermione ONESHOT


**Disclaimer:**

**Harry: "Quick, alert the prophet!"**

**Readers: "Why?"**

**Harry: "I don't belong to the writer of this fic!"**

**Me: "DUH! I'm just kidnapping you for a little while. Pass the biscuits, please, Harry, dear."**

**Harry: "I can't, I'm a little tied up at the moment."**

**Me: "Doing what?"**

**Harry: "Nothing. You TIED me UP, REMEMBER? SOMEBODY! ALERT THE PROPHET! I DON'T BELONG TO HER! SHE'S KIDNAPPED ME! _HELP_!"**

**AN: Of course I'd never actually kidnap him…really…Anyway, I was amazed at how many people liked Dancing, it's not like what I usually write. I don't know where it came from. If I did I'd go there all the time. Now I feel like all my writing has to live up to that…AAAAH! Anyway, this idea stemmed from something in a chapter fic I have in the works. I liked the idea better then the resulting fic, but…**

Ron didn't know what to say to crying girl in her arms. He couldn't tell her it was okay, he couldn't tell her it was going to be okay, he couldn't tell her that anything was okay. She certainly wasn't, though her sobs were starting to subside, and he knew he wasn't.

"What now?" she asked in a small voice.

It was the question he'd been dreading. He didn't have an answer. Which was to be expected if she didn't have an answer, hell would freeze over before he knew something Hermione Granger didn't.

He looked around the grounds as if there would be some billboard telling them what they needed to know. This was a _school_, this is where they were supposed to get answers to their questions. But he knew no answer was forthcoming, not this time.

But what was that? Harry and Scrimgeour, that couldn't be good.

"Harry needs us," Ron said.

Hermione removed her head from his chest and followed his gaze.

"He does need us," Hermione said, but somehow he didn't think she was talking about Scrimgeour.

"And we're going to be there for him," Ron said, and he knew he wasn't just talking about Scrimgeour.

"Oh, Ron," Hermione said, and suddenly she was sobbing into his chest again. "I don't know if I can handle all of this, how are we ever going to survive?"

"Well…we might not survive," Ron said. "But you know, we're alive right now and I think we can handle just about anything as long as that's still true. There are no guarantees, but we can't let it get to us. We're fighting the good fight, and as long as even one person's fighting there's hope. We have to hang onto that."

"You're right," Hermione said pulling away and straitening up. "I'm being silly."

She didn't look or sound very together though, more like she was trying to hide how scared and upset she was.

"Hermione, you're anything but silly," Ron said gently.

"No, I really am being silly," she said. "Harry needs us. We need to stick by Harry."

"We need to stick by each other, too," Ron said quietly.

She looked at him, and gave him a small, sad smile. Her eyes looked so empty, so lost…

He cast around the grounds one more time, desperately, surely there was something to make Hermione feel better, he'd do _anything_…

His eyes fell on Harry again, who was quite a ways out by now, and suddenly he remembered something…

"Well, we're in luck," he said. "It's a long walk to Harry."

"What do you mean?" Hermione said. "How is that lucky?"

"Walking makes everything better," Ron said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

She looked at him curiously.

"It's something mum used to tell us," Ron said. "Taking a break from everything and just going for a walk would help anything. It didn't matter what was on your mind, walking helped. It was a way to clear your head. She used to make me take them whenever I got mad at Ginny or my brothers."

"That explains with your head is so clear, then," Hermione said and he knew if she was joking that he'd gotten her curious enough she'd forgotten her problems for a minute, at any rate.

"Haha," Ron said. "The whole point is to take it slow. Mum used to say when your head is heavy you should take it slow, and when your heart is heavy you should be especially careful. She said it was important to remember that taking a walk wasn't running away, it was working through."

"Why does walking help?" Hermione said.

"Magic," Ron said with a cheeky grin.

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Mum said that in a world that always seems to be going too fast taking a break do to something at your own pace would do a world of good," he said.

She was quiet for a moment.

"But the problems don't go away," she said.

"Of course not," he said. "I said it wasn't running away, didn't I?"

"Then how does it _help_?" she said. "I mean, taking a break, it would just make things worse wouldn't it? Because then it would end and you'd have to deal with your problems again and they'd seem even worse."

"See, that's why you need to take a walk," he said. "You think too much. Mum says that's the worse thing you can do when your hurting, is to think about it, or think about what you're going to do about it, or think about how it might get better. The point of this is to stop thinking about it, and just deal with it."

"Without thinking about it?" she said incredulously.

"Yeah," he said. "The point, mum said, is that when you're hurting, you need to just hurt. Thinking gets in the way. As weird as it sounds, sometimes thinking about something that's hurting you is how you distract yourself from the pain. The thinking just needs to stop, so whatever's hurting can just hurt in peace. Letting yourself hurt is how you start to heal."

"So, you just…walk?" she said.

He nodded.

She seemed to consider it a moment.

"Well, let's go then," she said and started off, though not too fast.

He followed suit.

They walked in silence for a ways before she spoke.

"What are we going to say to him?" she said.

"You've been thinking," came the accusatory reply.

"I'm serious, Ron," she said.

"And that's your problem," he said. "Look, what we're going to say to him doesn't matter. What's there to say? Words don't matter, anyway. We're going to be there for him no matter what, that's what matters."

"And _you_ accuse _me_ of being serious," she said.

"Yes, you're much too serious and now you've contaminated me and ruined me for life," he said dramatically.

"I think you've made a miraculous recovery," she said.

They walked a little ways more. Suddenly she stopped.

"Ron?" she said, in a teary voice.

"Yes?" he said.

"It's not working," she said and was suddenly crying on his shoulder again. "I can't stop thinking about all the horrible things that…I can't stop thinking about it, I've tried and I _can't_."

He stroked her hair and they stood that way for a few moments. Ron looked at the crying girl in his arms and made up his mind.

"Well, let's look at this logically, then," he said. "Not a method I usually use, but I hear it works. Okay, people are dying, people very important to us have already died, we could die, and our best friend is in the middle of all it and is going to go after the person, the _thing_ which is causing all the people to die." He waited to see if she was going to say something and when she didn't he continued, "Bright side now. We, more or less, know what we have to do. We have each other and will be sticking together no matter what, unless of course one of us dies, but with your brains and Harry's brawn and my…self, we're set. Brains, brawn, Ron, I don't know about you but that's everything on _my _checklist. Not to mention just how powerful a brain we're working with, smartest witch of her age, I hear. A genius. Even if she does think too much. And this brawn got an O in defense against the dark arts, plus he's 'the Chosen One' that's got to count for something. And I'm the Ronest Ron I know. We can't be beat. I have faith in Harry, at least. He'll come out on top, and if we die in the process…well, that's just about the most worthwhile thing to die for. Though, really, we've got a brain, a brawn and a Ron. The baddies don't stand a chance."

There was another few second's silence and Hermione resurfaced wiping away her tears.

"That's hardly logic, Ron," Hermione said, though the corners of her mouth were twitching in what was almost a not entirely broken smile. "I think I prefer to put my trust in your mother."

At first he wasn't sure what she meant but when she started walking again he got it.

"You want to know what my mum used to say when I was troubled?" she asked after a moment.

"What?" he said.

"Not to hold it in," she said. "To…to cry on the shoulder of someone I loved."

He could feel himself blushing and knew she was too.

Without looking at her he reached out and took her hand.

Just then they saw Scrimgeour walking away from Harry looking less then pleased. Hermione gave his hand a brief squeeze, let go and began running toward Harry. He allowed himself a fleeting smile before hurrying after her. She was going to be okay. He decided then that mother's really don't get enough credit.

**AN: Yet another OOC Ron, but he just comes out that way, it seems. He's so carefree and childlike that you have to make him the one holding on to hope, and by doing so he becomes uncharacteristically wise. Ah, well, what can you do? (I'll give you a hint.)**

**Ode to Reviews**

**by me and my muse**

_**We never knew what love was,**_

_**Until someone reviewed us.**_

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